Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 1:31 pmPosts: 1620Location: In the land of Druids and Moonrakers

Sorry to hear you're in UC misery, missbear. My partner has UC, so I know second hand how rotten things must be for you right now. Have you adjusted your Pentasa dose to try and settle things down a bit? When things are tricky here, Mr Rose goes onto the beige food diet for a little while - small but frequent servings of processed white bread, oven chips, mashed potatoes, white rice, white pasta shapes - with blended up veggies as sauces to try to get some of the vitamins without placing too great a digestive burden. It's very easy to become anaemic when you're having a flare up, so watch your iron levels. He finds gentle exercise helps with the cramping. And try to take it easy as much as you can, as stress escalates all miserable symptoms.

Like you probably already know everyone's IBD is different. I don't get that much diarrhea anymore, but I go 5-6 times a day, loosely formed stools. My disease is primarily in my small intestine though so it has a greater effect on my upper gi. I probably have no good tips for you since UC effects the colon but I take benefiber (it isn't vegan though) and I would highly highly recommend it for diarrhea. Do a google search and I'll see that a lot of people with IBD use it and it seems to get rid of the diarrhea pretty consistently. When I started using it a couple of months ago, my diarrhea went away and bowel movements were less painful. The thing I hated more than the actual diarrhea was the debilitating cramps that came with it, and they are almost gone. I've got nothing for the fatigue though, that is something that I suffer from pretty bad and have found nothing that consistently helps me, some days I have tons of energy, others I cannot even get out of bed because everything is spinning.

If it lasts too long I'd honestly ask for some prednisone and talk to your doctor about other medications. I know pentasa is pretty good for people with UC but everyones disease is always changing and it may not be enough after/during this particular flare. Prednisone is wonderful short term, yes weight gain happens, a puffy face, etc. But most people respond quickly and have a lot of energy. I have a sister with very severe crohns and when she is on pred she is like a totally different person. In two months it knocked her into remission, something a year of a 3x dose of remicade couldn't do. And if you are familiar with remicade it is often considered the last line treatment because it is a very serious drug.

Hope you feel better and don't let other people lack of understanding cause you more stress. Unfortunately I've found it best to just ignore people and distance myself during a flare because people can be so critical and misinformed about the disease that it just become difficult to be around them.

hey! my boyfriend has UC. he takes prescribed medication from a doctor and sees a naturopath. he had a really bad flare-up a few months ago and the naturopath gave him a strict diet, one that was free of common allergens such as wheat, soy, citrus, peanuts, and a few other things. he manages it with probiotics and and prebiotics, slippery elm (which is quite useful!!), turmeric and cramp bark to ease pain - all three help him very much. he takes various prescribed pills, too.

cramp bark and slippery elm are available in herb or tincture form at apothecaries/altnerative medicine shops and health food stores.

i had proctitis last year, and so i did a whole slew of research. i know it's a form of colitis, but i don't know if the "ulcerative" part puts UC into a completely different category or not. my doc said they're not sure what causes it, so in my research, i found stress was a big thing. (once i quit my awful job and got a prescription for canasa, i was home free.)

yeah stress is a MAJOR thing. something else he does is take baths with epsom salts. he lies with an oil pack for 20 minutes (castor oil) on his abdomen/stomach area while listening to calm music, such as native stories or sounds.he also meditates and does breathing exercises which he finds very helpful, because when he is stressed out, he gets pretty bad cramps. he also avoids things like sugar and caffeine. and alcohol.

and he just found out that peppermint is the ~queen of digestive teas~ according to his doctor, so he's going to drink some of that from now on. oolong tea also helps digestion.

oh, and make sure you NEVER CONSUME ECHINACEA. as colitis is diagnosed as an auto-immune disorder, anything that boosts white blood cell count is detrimental to UC. it was the cause of his horrible horrible flare-up in september...we had to go to the emergency room, he was off work for 2 weeks, he could hardly move or do anything...ugh.

He manages it with probiotics and and prebiotics, slippery elm (which is quite useful!!), turmeric and cramp bark to ease pain - all three help him very much. he takes various prescribed pills, too. cramp bark and slippery elm are available in herb or tincture form at apothecaries/altnerative medicine shops and health food stores.

I think I'm quite late to the party, but I was wondering what probiotics and prebiotics your boyfriend takes? I have UC also, and I sometimes buy VSL#3, but as it's $4 a sachet and I will often need to use 8 sachets in a 24 hour period, it's really not the greatest option. I also take Slippery Elm.